Thursday, December 1, 2011

Anna Comnena

‘…In short, the Princess Anna Comnena, high in rank as she was, and born in the imperial purple, which she herself deemed the first of all attributes, felt herself, nevertheless, in preparing to resume the recitation of her history, more anxious to obtain the approbation of this rune soldier, than that of all the rest of the courteous audience…’

Anna Comnena (or Komnene) is an important character in Walter Scott’s “Count Robert of Paris” (text above). Scott consulted her “Alexiad”, which was a history of her father Alexius I’s reign in Byzantium, in the writing of this novel. Princess Comnena was born on December 1, 1083.